FARMINGTON — The effort was there for the Farmington High School girls basketball team, but near the end of the game, the buckets were not.

The Tigers could not overcome a late surge by visiting Franklin, and the final result was a 44-41 loss that sent Farmington packing from the Division III tournament.

“We just came up short,” Farmington assistant coach Andrew Morse said. “The girls played a full 32 minutes and it came down to the last shot. But the effort from the girls, 1 through 10, was great. Our seniors left everything out on the floor.”

It was the first meeting of the season between the two teams. The 14th-seeded Tigers’ season is over at 9-10. No. 19 Franklin (7-12) earned a trip to No. 3 Bishop Brady (16-2) for a second-round game on Thursday.

Farmington attempted to tie the game with seconds remaining, but Shannon Cardinal’s 3-point attempt went off the glass and rim. Kara Shannon (10 points) got the rebound and threw up a desperation 3 at the buzzer, which was short, sending the Golden Tornadoes into the round of 16.

“I thought we played up to our potential,” Shannon said. “We hadn’t been playing great lately, but I think tonight we finally came together. Their big girls really killed us, but I think everybody played a great game.”

A bucket by Shannon Cardinal with 5:25 to go in the game gave the Tigers a 36-30 lead, but the Golden Tornadoes reeled off eight straight points — highlighted by a layup from Katarina Styles following a steal — to take a 38-36 lead with 3:34 to go. Styles finished with a game-high 15 points.

A baseline jumper by Farmington’s Kelsey Gregoire tied the game 38-38, but Franklin re-took the lead with a layup by Jill Roberts (14 points). Farmington’s Kayla Squires drained a pair of free throws with 1:42 to go to tie things up at 40-40.

“We showed some heart tonight at the end,” Franklin coach JJ Winters said. “This is a big win for us. We lost a lot of close games this year. Us and Farmington have similar teams. Whoever made the last play was going to win this game.”

Styles then hit a layup following a mid-court steal to give Franklin a 42-40 lead with 1:18 to go. Gregoire hit one of two free throws to cut the lead to 1 with 49.9 seconds remaining, then Styles hit a layup on the other end of the court to put the Tornadoes up three, 44-41 with 41 seconds to play.

Then disaster struck for the Tigers. A player dribbled the ball off her foot, and it was picked up by a Franklin player. Although the Franklin player subsequently dribbled the ball off her foot as well, the exchange took about 20 seconds to transpire, forcing Farmington to rush its final shot.

After an ugly first half that saw Franklin take a 20-19 lead (Farmington missed 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch), the Tigers responded with a 12-2 run in the third period that gave them a 31-26 lead after three stops. Shannon and McKenzie Lloyd (14 points) each hit a 3-pointer for Farmington’s final two buckets of the frame.

“That pumped us up,” Shannon said. “But then we were kind of rushing shots after that, getting too excited and ahead of ourselves.”

The Tigers caught a break when Franklin’s Kelsey Bird fouled out less than 30 seconds into the final frame. The teams exchanged the first six buckets of the stanza, setting the stage for the visitors’ 8-0 run that put them in position to win.

“After Kelsey fouled out we knew we had to step it up,” Roberts said. “Personally, I was frustrated. We just had to pick each other up. It shows that we can work together.”

Farmington coach Gary Noyes was absent from the sidelines, serving a one-game suspension handed to him by the school. The punishment stemmed from an incident at the Tigers’ final regular-season game at Berlin last Friday. Farmington athletic director Dan Chick did not elaborate further.